Sativied's Indoor Garden

SxIstew

Well-Known Member
LOL, not the first time, probably wont be the last :)
I tend to stay high. so I forget a lot. Like to hit the post button. lol I've typed a huge response and then forgot to his post and left the house for hours come back and the message is still just sitting there. lol. 40 pages later......... WHY RESPOND? lol
 

Pinworm

Well-Known Member
Hey, boss. Starting my first DWC project after 3 years using dirtbags. Your thread has been helpful. I was hoping I could talk you into giving some more details about your nutes - feeding sched. I'm leaning towards Lucas formula obviously because of the simplicity, but I'll most likely be adding other stuff to the soup i.e. CaMag, Superthrive, etc. Have you tried that method before? ::subbed::
 

Sativied

Well-Known Member
I'm leaning towards Lucas formula obviously because of the simplicity,
I planned on using GHE nutes as well, and at the same time wanted to add "other stuff to the soup" too. The reason I went for the H&G line is simple: the local growshop had a dead cheap offer on the H&G starter kit (roughly $110). It includes all the H&G products I mentioned in the Nutes section of my first post in this thread and except for the A&B component it lasts (in my case) for 3-5 cycles differing per additive. Drip clean and Magic green will last even longer.

The H&G Root Excel I'm definitely going to keep using. How much effectively it works I don't know, haven't done hydro without it, but my roots are healthy and the rez always smells fresh.

As for the others nutes, I'm not sure yet. By itself I don't see a reason to change a working thing so I'll probably stick with H&G. Although I could have some control with just A and B (since A contains most N) I rather use additives for more control. The main veg additive is MultiEnzym (named differently across the globe if I remember correctly), which is N+K. During peak and later flowering the main additive is Bud XL, which is N+P. And there's the PK13/14 of course (Top Booster is that, but includes Iron). H&G already contains Cal and Mg, and so does my tap water but I do use a bottle of Cal+Mg+N a little.

As for a feeding schedule, I don't really have one because I work with 3 different strains from one nutes solution and they aren't going to follow any schedule I set in advance. I use a combination of the H&G chart and nutes calculator on their US site, and a chart pdf from their UK site, to estimate the ratio of ingredients in the soup. I don't keep notes or anything. I don't measure 'exactly' how much nutes I give. After a refresh (since my roots are in the tubes I can easily refresh the rez contents entirely) I simply add base nutes (roughly based on those formerly mentioned charts) up to roughly 800-900ppm (for example, in current phase. I know it's 800-900 ppm as that's what a long drink glass of A and of B results in my rez :) ), and then add additives to raise it to roughly 1050-1100 (more if PK13/14 time). Then 6-12 hours later I check whether it went up or down more than just a little (based on ppm and/or PH) and then add some more if needed, or top off with water to lower the ppm.

Having control is the main benefit of medium-less hydro, but it comes with a flip side, any deficiencies or overfeeding will have consequences much faster and 'need' to be controlled asap. More important than the nutes brand or schedule or exact doses is the info the plants give based on usage (if ppm lowers in nutes solution feed more), the color and tips of the leaves, stretching, stage of flower/bud formation etc, etc.

Two 'tools' any hydro grower must read / have access to:
- Nute deficiencies and toxication guides (most major forums have one as a sticky)
- Nute uptake chart with optimal PH levels for each element for hydro specifically (for example, many people add Mg while they should simply raise the PH to 6.0-ish for half a day or so)
 

Pinworm

Well-Known Member
I planned on using GHE nutes as well, and at the same time wanted to add "other stuff to the soup" too. The reason I went for the H&G line is simple: the local growshop had a dead cheap offer on the H&G starter kit (roughly $110). It includes all the H&G products I mentioned in the Nutes section of my first post in this thread and except for the A&B component it lasts (in my case) for 3-5 cycles differing per additive. Drip clean and Magic green will last even longer.

The H&G Root Excel I'm definitely going to keep using. How much effectively it works I don't know, haven't done hydro without it, but my roots are healthy and the rez always smells fresh.

As for the others nutes, I'm not sure yet. By itself I don't see a reason to change a working thing so I'll probably stick with H&G. Although I could have some control with just A and B (since A contains most N) I rather use additives for more control. The main veg additive is MultiEnzym (named differently across the globe if I remember correctly), which is N+K. During peak and later flowering the main additive is Bud XL, which is N+P. And there's the PK13/14 of course (Top Booster is that, but includes Iron). H&G already contains Cal and Mg, and so does my tap water but I do use a bottle of Cal+Mg+N a little.

As for a feeding schedule, I don't really have one because I work with 3 different strains from one nutes solution and they aren't going to follow any schedule I set in advance. I use a combination of the H&G chart and nutes calculator on their US site, and a chart pdf from their UK site, to estimate the ratio of ingredients in the soup. I don't keep notes or anything. I don't measure 'exactly' how much nutes I give. After a refresh (since my roots are in the tubes I can easily refresh the rez contents entirely) I simply add base nutes (roughly based on those formerly mentioned charts) up to roughly 800-900ppm (for example, in current phase. I know it's 800-900 ppm as that's what a long drink glass of A and of B results in my rez :) ), and then add additives to raise it to roughly 1050-1100 (more if PK13/14 time). Then 6-12 hours later I check whether it went up or down more than just a little (based on ppm and/or PH) and then add some more if needed, or top off with water to lower the ppm.

Having control is the main benefit of medium-less hydro, but it comes with a flip side, any deficiencies or overfeeding will have consequences much faster and 'need' to be controlled asap. More important than the nutes brand or schedule or exact doses is the info the plants give based on usage (if ppm lowers in nutes solution feed more), the color and tips of the leaves, stretching, stage of flower/bud formation etc, etc.

Two 'tools' any hydro grower must read / have access to:
- Nute deficiencies and toxication guides (most major forums have one as a sticky)
- Nute uptake chart with optimal PH levels for each element for hydro specifically (for example, many people add Mg while they should simply raise the PH to 6.0-ish for half a day or so)
Outstanding, brother. Covered everything I was hoping for. :::scrambles for a pen and paper:::
 

Sativied

Well-Known Member
Day ...sumthin' 12/12 :eyesmoke:

SK:


Kolossus:


Although the Kolossus is a few days ahead, I expected the SK to be more frosty than the Kolossus (and fatter or at least as...). Clearly different from the Kolossus I had last round.
 

Sativied

Well-Known Member


Tried to pollinate again yesterday, it looks like it may have worked this time.... I'll snap some pics of it tomorrow.
 

Sativied

Well-Known Member
Playin' with my ballz:


After a while white-ish stuff starts to come out:


Then things get blurry and magical for a few seconds:


And it's all over the place:


And now we wait... still got a few balls on the branch, and a few bananas drying, but I'm done pollen chucking this cycle.
 

hbbum

Well-Known Member
wow.. the text version or your post with no pictures made me not want to see your post :D
 

Sativied

Well-Known Member
All this playing with my balls has distracted me a little from the ladies.

After comparing the two SK plants to each other and to the rest I've come to the conclusion that I probably won't be growing my own cross next cycle. Kolossus and CF are doing well, but SK is clearly not going to be a big yielder. The SK I got the pollen from is not even the best from the two SK plants I have either. This was a calculated risk, wanted to test TM and try and make some fem seeds 'before' going through selection, but it doesn't make me happy either.

Next cycle I'm going to do things a bit differently...
 

Sativied

Well-Known Member
Colors a bit skewed in this one (not that dark in reality), but still shows the wall of leaves in the front nicely:


Chocolate Fondue about to wake up:


Still not 100% but don't want to push the SK and Kolossus any further so she'll just have to be happy with it:


SK(I)


SK(II)


Kolossus:
 

Pinworm

Well-Known Member
I was thinking about installing a couple PC fans in the side of my res to get some evap cooling going. Are you using a 3 prong adapter to get those firing or what?
 

Sativied

Well-Known Member
That Zalman PC fan in the picture is one of several I have running, amongst others for my germ/preveg box. There are two in my air intake light-sluice (as active intake) of the flower closet too , in which the air pump resides as well. So I pump fresh and cooler air into the rez. This doesn't really chill the rez, but it definitely helps reducing heat up.

I power them using 9v or 12v adapters, some from old phone chargers and other stuff that broke. Like these (European plug) http://www.amazon.com/Hanna-Instruments-HI710006-Adapter-European/dp/B0085XPKP4

Aquarium stores sell them for cooling aquariums of various sizes too, usually multiple fans in a row.

The downside of evap cooling is that you evaporate the water but the nutrients are left behind. This increases the nutrient level relatively and messes with monitoring the plants nutes usage. If for example you'd have a little too much nutes in it already causing the PPM, thus nutes level, to rise, and on top of that you evap water out of the nutes solution, things can go wrong fast. Just as with an aquarium you will have to top off more often when using evap cooling.
 

Pinworm

Well-Known Member
That Zalman PC fan in the picture is one of several I have running, amongst others for my germ/preveg box. There are two in my air intake light-sluice (as active intake) of the flower closet too , in which the air pump resides as well. So I pump fresh and cooler air into the rez. This doesn't really chill the rez, but it definitely helps reducing heat up.

I power them using 9v or 12v adapters, some from old phone chargers and other stuff that broke. Like these (European plug) http://www.amazon.com/Hanna-Instruments-HI710006-Adapter-European/dp/B0085XPKP4

Aquarium stores sell them for cooling aquariums of various sizes too, usually multiple fans in a row.


The downside of evap cooling is that you evaporate the water but the nutrients are left behind. This increases the nutrient level relatively and messes with monitoring the plants nutes usage. If for example you'd have a little too much nutes in it already causing the PPM, thus nutes level, to rise, and on top of that you evap water out of the nutes solution, things can go wrong fast. Just as with an aquarium you will have to top off more often when using evap cooling.
Good lookin' out, boss. Maybe I'll just blast some AC air on the res instead..
 

Sativied

Well-Known Member
Had 5 weeks and a couple of days 12/12:

SK:





CF1 (left around corner, just a small lower bud)


CF1 and CF2 got a little clawing going on, pushed them a little too far N-wise. It's almost annoying how spot on the H&G charts are, leaves little room to variate. Even more so because nearly every bottle I got contains N (AB, Multizym, Bud XL, Magic Green during veg..., and even the Biogreen calgel). They got Top Booster (PK13/14) with their weekly refresh a couple of days ago but had to dial it back a notch too, got some light tips.

The CF3 (ex-weakling right back corner) is producing some very dense flowers.
 

Sativied

Well-Known Member
SK2:


Kolossus:


The should-be-pollinated SK:


CF2:


Best attempt at full view:


SK1:

^^Notice the monster in the back, which is:

CF2 again:
 

SxIstew

Well-Known Member
OH SHIT SON! looks like the ladies are ready for some cake! Gonna start to fatten up real soon! :)






P.S. Those leaves are HUGE! :)
 
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